"Hawk Bones"

Arrowhawk

Artists:

This oughta fuck up your sunny day. "Hawk Bones," from Athens, GA three-piece Bambara's debut LP Dreamviolence, comes on like a flash flood, swooping in outta nowhere to rain down three minutes of utter anguish. As vocalist Reid Bateh pleads, "Have you seen my baby?" in a desperate baritone, his brother Blaze pounds out a gusting rhythm, swelling every couple seconds, refusing to let up until everything's been washed clean.

Peel back the skin on "Hawk Bones", and there's no end to the malevolence, from early Swans' back-basement seething to the dark triumphalism of stadium-goth. But-- Georgia boys that the Batehs and childhood friend/bassist William Brookshire are-- there's a thick streak of black-of-night country swirling around in the tempest, too: Reid Bateh's guitar chugs along like a runaway train, the occasional echo-drenched string-bend like a lonesome whistle howling through the stormy night. "Hawk Bones" isn't some piddly drizzle fit for dancing around in; you'd be wise to stay indoors and seek shelter where you can.